I have many years of work experience and have worked in 10 companies so far. I always ended up sugar coating my feedback in nearly all of the exit interviews. However, this time around in 2021 during my 10th workplace I decided to be honest.
Positive feedback: I praised all the great coworkers, great managers that I worked with, good senior people that I worked with, the companies policies, etc.
Negative feedback: I had left the company because of my last manager who was both toxic and incompetent (my previous managers were great leaders). He had no idea about the work that we did, nor did he have any rudimentary leadership skills. I ranted out everything (it was very soothing) even though I knew he was friends with the HR team. But for once in my life I decided to be super honest and shared what I felt and shared examples, data, emails, etc. It felt very good and I left the company without any emotional baggage.
Latest update: I just came to know that another colleague who had left around the same time had also given a similar feedback about this toxic manager's behavior. The HR decided to share their objective observations but nothing happened as this manager is friends with the senior management too. However, the person who replaced me was an expat from Europe (I and the IT company is in southern Asia and expats are treated like gods here). The expat had the same experience within one month of her joining and she too left the company within 3 months because of this toxic manager. She was not as kind during her exit interview and she also shared a formal complaint. Now the cat was out of the bag and the HR was forced to intervene and more people started sharing their issues about this toxic manager. Long story short: This toxic manager is now in big trouble (I can't share more info here).
So my personal opinion now is: Always share honest feedback about jerks in your exit interviews. You might be doing a good deed in the long run for many people. Sharing an honest feedback during an exit interview is like 'not littering'. If everyone starts doing it, then the city will always be clean for you and for me and for our families :)
Positive feedback: I praised all the great coworkers, great managers that I worked with, good senior people that I worked with, the companies policies, etc.
Negative feedback: I had left the company because of my last manager who was both toxic and incompetent (my previous managers were great leaders). He had no idea about the work that we did, nor did he have any rudimentary leadership skills. I ranted out everything (it was very soothing) even though I knew he was friends with the HR team. But for once in my life I decided to be super honest and shared what I felt and shared examples, data, emails, etc. It felt very good and I left the company without any emotional baggage.
Latest update: I just came to know that another colleague who had left around the same time had also given a similar feedback about this toxic manager's behavior. The HR decided to share their objective observations but nothing happened as this manager is friends with the senior management too. However, the person who replaced me was an expat from Europe (I and the IT company is in southern Asia and expats are treated like gods here). The expat had the same experience within one month of her joining and she too left the company within 3 months because of this toxic manager. She was not as kind during her exit interview and she also shared a formal complaint. Now the cat was out of the bag and the HR was forced to intervene and more people started sharing their issues about this toxic manager. Long story short: This toxic manager is now in big trouble (I can't share more info here).
So my personal opinion now is: Always share honest feedback about jerks in your exit interviews. You might be doing a good deed in the long run for many people. Sharing an honest feedback during an exit interview is like 'not littering'. If everyone starts doing it, then the city will always be clean for you and for me and for our families :)